The meanest, dirtiest streets of Brooklyn seem like an unlikely setting for a happy ending. Yet Brooklyn: The Musical, playing at Miller Outdoor Theatre, proves that anything is possible.

Brooklyn is actually about two different Brooklyns — the NYC ‘hood and a Parisian orphan, played by American Idol finalist Diana DeGarmo. Left alone when her mother hanged herself after her father failed to return from a trip to his hometown of…Brooklyn, Brooklyn begins to bud into a songstress and leaves the orphanage with a set of pipes as mean as the garbage-strewn streets of her namesake.

After traveling to Brooklyn (the borough), Brooklyn (the character) meets the singing vagrants the City Weeds and the cold-hearted, wisecracking prostitute/vocalist Paradice. In a battle of sweet versus street, the two compete at Madison Square Garden. One can only guess who will win.

July 18-23, 8:15 p.m.

This article appears in Jul 13-19, 2006.